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Having Breakdown back in the medbay for the foreseeable future made sleep a rarity. Usually when I'm bored I'll just find something to do or sleep till someone comes and gives me something to do. Lord Megatron recently declared that having a bot watch me 24/7 was a waste of resources and that I'm to begin training with Soundwave every other day. So far, Sound has just given me a datapad of the cybertronian alphabet and syllables to learn. That seems easy at first, except you eventually realise that not everything in the cybertronian language has an English translation. At that point, I just ask what the word is and what it means so I can remember it and hopefully identify it myself.

Its been a week now and I've gotten pretty used to reading cybertronian, so Sound started having me sit at his station and mimic some of his work, which turned out to be a lot of hacking. Luckily I already have experience hacking since I wasn't the most "follow the rules" type in school. Ive never been the best since I didn't have someone to teach me, but with Sound Ive been progressing very quickly. For practice on the days I'm not with him, he has me get past different types of coding systems and try to break through firewalls. I'm not sure what he's training me for but its been fun figuring all of this out. I always prefer having something to occupy my mind and Soundwave provides the perfect challenges.

In my spare time Ive been teaching myself how to fight, or self-defense at the very least. I'm so much smaller than them, but I don't want to run into an Autobot unprotected again... Or worse. Knockout offered to build something along the lines of a cybertronian grade taser for me that could be used like an extendable staff. When we got more into the topic of weapons, I told him I loved how elegant and deadly knives and daggers are so Knockout said he would try making something like the staff but in the form of daggers. "That would be absolutely amazing! Thank you Knockout!"

Obviously I still wasn't allowed to just roam around unsupervised, but Starscream had taken to following me from a distance whenever he spotted me alone in the halls. I had been walking late one night because I couldn't sleep, and the sound of slow clicking steps farther behind me caught my attention. My mind immediately jumped to the femme Airachnid so I stopped and hid behind the collums that lined the walls. The clicking went on for a moment before stopping, so I took a chance and peaked out from my hiding spot.

"Starscream, why the hell are you follow me?" Stepping out, I crossed my arms and huffed. Blonde brown hair from my messy bun fell down into my face as I stopped.

Standing there like a deer in headlights, his wings dropped in embarrassment while his face seemed annoyed. "Who says I'm following you? I'm second in command, I can walk the halls at night if desire! I should be the one asking why your out alone, aren't you supposed to be with Knockout or Soundwave?" He growled and leaned down to stick a sharp digit to my chest.

I pushed back his claw and stuck out my tongue, which he sneered at in disgust. "I have just as much freedom to walk as you do. Thats not what I'm asking though, why were you following me? If you weren't following me you wouldn't have stopped."

His red optics narrowed and he plucked me off the floor before standing and continuing down the hall. I kicked his digit and tried to get out of his grasp but it was useless considering the size and difference in strength. I dropped my head back onto his hand and groaned loudly, "Starscreeeeeeam where are we going? Just leave me alone."

"As second in command I can't leave vermin to wonder about the ship at night without supervision. Who knows what you'll get your filthy touch on?" He squeezed a smidge tighter while I just laid there and sighed in defeat. "Wouldn't want your filthy touch on anything either, ya metal wolverine...." I mumbled. He probably heard me but didn't understand so he kept quiet and continued on down the hall.

After a while, we made it to a large door on a side of the ship most of the vehicons avoided and we stepped in. It was a semi open space, the cybertronian size of a master bedroom with a large tube (what I assume is a recharge bay that Knockout has told me about), a desk with lighting and a monitor, a large shelf of datapads, and a much larger monitor on the wall showing a live display of moving clouds as they change with the weather and sky. As the door sealed behind us, he moved further into the room.

I was quickly dropped onto the desk under the light as Star pulled back a metal desk chair and took a seat. His joints let out a quiet groan and the sound of moving air was heard as he let out a quiet sigh and relaxed into the seat. I sat up as I watched him. He seemed stressed. His usually glowing blood red optics were dull and his wings were low. Starscream rested his forearm on the desk and laid his forehead on it, closing his optics.

Very quietly, I moved forwards and laid a hand on the top of his servo. After a long silent moment, he opened an optic and looked directly at me, coating me in its red light. Tilting my head I gave him a small smile.

"You look tired..." I spoke softly.

"I feel tired... Why must you be so bothersome... Always worrying about us like it really matters to you." His optics closed again and his body hissed as he shifted his head to the other side.

I sat down with my back against his wrist, the strangely warm metal comforting. "But it does..." I moved my knees to my chest and rested my head on my arms. "It matters a lot."

I looked up and around his room, taking in all the nicnacks and objects sitting decoratively on shelves and casual places. A polished silver badge placed on the highest shelf caught my eye, about the length of my leg with the indented image of three jets and cybertronian characters spelling out ESFC. What does that mean? I looked back to Starscream.

"You may not feel it, but all of you are like my family now. I never really had a family... So don't say that it doesn't matter because it matters a hell of a lot."

Its been so long everyone, but I finally made the next chapter. Im sorry about the wait but life has been hectic and with the election going on right now I just needed something to take my mind off of it all. 1180 words, I hope you enjoyed. I'll start on the next chapter since I dont want to drift into nonexistence again. Thanks for reading, it makes me proud to know so many people like this book.

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